Some swimming or bathing caps capable of inflation have been proposed to ensure a more watertight fit or, in some cases, to provide buoyancy for a wearer's head when the wearer is floating on their back.
Br 276236 discloses a bathing cap having a life preserving function provided by the use of a retainable inflatable band which preferably also has the effect upon inflation of better fitting the wearer's head. Br 970991 discloses a bathing cap having pockets of air provided within the material of the cap or being of a kind fitted on an inside wall with inflatable tubes. Particular emphasis is placed on fit for comfort (eg; to exclude seawater from a swimmer's head). Br 882880 discloses a travelling cap for the purpose of cushioning a traveller's head (eg; much in the same way as a pillow). It relies on an inflatable sac or inflatable sacs.
Br 1488592 and U.S. Pat. No. 3,978,527 disclose an inflatable cap for swimmers amongst others which relies on at least one valved inflatable compartment defined, for example, by a suitably modified double walled cap of rubber or of a soft elastic plastics film.
EP 0 686 356 A1 discloses a swimming cap having an inflatable chamber on its outside. U.S. Pat. No. 5,095,545 discloses (over prior art of U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,403,406, 3,394,406, 3,259,912, 3,321,772 and 3,480,967) a swimming cap with discrete pneumatic chambers captured between layers of an associated swim cap, the matrix of interconnected pneumatic chambers to index through openings of an inner wall of the swim cap.
DE 284066A discloses swimming or bathing caps subdivided into a number of inflatable chambers and adapted to provide emergency flotation. The chambers have valves enabling pressure sensitive inflation from a replaceable and releasably mounted pressured gas vessel.